Sadao Hasegawa: Paintings

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The book also includes an essay by Dr Thomas Baudinette, author of Regimes of Desire: Young Men, Media and Masculinity in Tokyo (University of Michigan Press, 2021) and is designed by Sam Boxer, Art Director of Gut Magazine. Whilst gaining acclaim in queer publications in the USA and Europe, with critics historicising Hasegawa’s work as an influence on contemporary Japanese queer culture, and the gay manga genre , Hasegawa's works have not been widely recognized: his only book is the highly collectable Paradise Visions (Kochi Studio, 1996).

On the American debate about the use of the atomic bombs, see Barton J. Bernstein, “The Struggle over History: Defining the Hiroshima Narrative, in Judgment at the Smithsonian, ed. Philip Nobile, 127–256 (New York: Marlowe, 1995). But what I can state is that the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not likely to be decisive in inducing Japan to surrender. Without the Soviet entry into the war between the two bombs, Japan would most likely have continued the war. The argument presented by Asada and Frank that the atomic bombs rather than Soviet entry into the war had a more decisive effect on Japan’s decision to surrender cannot be supported. The Hiroshima bomb, although it heightened the sense of urgency to seek the termination of the war, did not prompt the Japanese government to take any immediate action that repudiated the previous policy of seeking Moscow’s mediation. Contrary to the contention advanced by Asada and Frank, there is no evidence to show that the Hiroshima bomb led either Togo or the emperor to accept the Potsdam terms. On the contrary, Togo’s urgent telegram to Sato on August 7 indicates that, despite the Hiroshima bomb, they continued to stay the previous course. The effect of the Nagasaki bomb was negligible. It did not change the political alignment one way or the other. Even Anami’s fantastic suggestion that the United States had more than 100 atomic bombs and planned to bomb Tokyo next did not change the opinions of either the peace party or the war party at all.

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It is difficult to document just how the Soviet factor influenced the emperor’s decision and the thinking of his close advisers. It is possible to conjecture, however, that the emperor and his advisers wished to avoid any Soviet influence in determining the fate of the imperial household and the emperor’s status. It is not far-fetched to assume that Suzuki’s statement and Shigemitsu’s thinking quoted above, which explain the need to accept the Byrnes note before the Soviet Union expanded its conquered territories, was widely shared by the ruling circles in Japan. Though it was initially instituted as a way for queer relationships to mirror the power dynamics inherent to any heterosexual relationship that exists in a patriarchal society, it has since been weaponized against the queer community. Used to insist queerness is inherently related to pedophilia and separate the younger members from the older.

In addition to his early death, it is this that has limited his legacy throughout the global queer community. Though he and his work are by no means obscure, his name is not brought up with the regularity of his peers, such as Tom of Finland. a b c d Naruyama, Akimitsu (1 December 2008). "HASEGAWA SADAO". #205 Matsuoka Kudan Bldg. 2-2-8 Kudan Minami, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo 102-0074 Japan. Naruyama Gallery . Retrieved 25 February 2013. There are two distinct gaps in this historiography. First, with regard to the atomic bombs, as Asada Sadao in Japan correctly observes, American historians have concentrated on the “motives” behind the use of atomic bombs, but “they have slighted the effects of the bomb.”[2] Second, although historians have been aware of the decisive influence of both the atomic bombs and the Soviet entry into the war, they have largely sidestepped the Soviet factor, relegating it to sideshow status.[3] If these arguments are correct, there was indeed a fundamental change of policy, at least on the part of Togo, if not the entire cabinet, and the Hiroshima bomb had a decisive effect on Togo’s thinking, since until then he had been advocating suing for peace through Moscow’s mediation before considering the acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation. In his memoirs, however, Togo does not portray this cabinet meeting as a decisive turning point. The following is all he says about the cabinet meeting: “On the afternoon of the 7th, there was a cabinet meeting. The army minister and the home minister read their reports. The army appeared to minimize the effect of the bomb, without admitting that it was the atomic bomb, insisting that further investigation was necessary.”[7] Today, Hasegawa holds a distinguished position as a forerunner of homoerotic art within Japan, championing one of few non-European perspectives in the modern genre. Bungaku Itō, the visionary founder of Japan’s first gay magazine, Barazoku, hailed Hasegawa’s art as transcending the realm of pornography, evoking the essence of Buddhist artistry. Nevertheless, Hasegawa’s artistic creations have remained relatively concealed. However, a compilation of his magazine works titled Sadao Hasegawa: Paintings and Drawings emerged from the British publisher Gay Men’s Press in 1990. A more comprehensive monograph, Paradise Visions, saw the light of day in 1996 through Kochi Studio’s domestic publication in Japan. And more recently, in 2022, Baron Books, the cult UK-based publisher, unveiled an inaugural posthumous monograph, delving into Hasegawa’s seldom-seen archives.

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The belief that younger queer men are inherently more beautiful, joyful, or have more potential does direct harm to older queer men. Beauty, joy, and potential do not fade with age. Antenne Books is a distributor for independent publishers. Established in London in 2010, Antenne Books distributes publications on art, photography, design, illustration, theory, writing, fashion and culture. Sadao Hasegawa 1978–1983. (n.d.). Tokyo Art Beat. Retrieved July 28, 2021, from https://www.tokyoartbeat.com/event/2014/8F6D Sadao Hasegawa was born in 1945 in the Tōkai region of Japan. There's no info on whether he had an art education, yet it's known that he started traveling in his twenties, which shaped the artist's approach and the range of themes in his vivid images. Moreover, it seems his exotic experience of visiting India eventually made him take up drawing. Already in 1973, his first solo exhibition, Sadao Hasegawa's Alchemism: Meditation for 1973, was held in Tokyo, presenting oil paintings, collages, drawings, and sculptures. Curiously, the first one-man exposition happened five years before Hasegawa's first appearance in Barazoku gay magazine. Later, the artist would publish his works in a number of other Japanese gay periodicals like Sabu, Samson, and Adon. Today, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. In the section of Tokyo, known as Kudan, stands the mighty Yasukini shrine. Directly in from of the shrine is the Maruyama Gallery. It is here, that the opening ceremonies for a show of works by Sadao Hasegawa are being held. From a window in the gallery, a clear view of the Indian Embassy is visible. It was in India, that the birth of Buddha took place. Perhaps, the two masters are eternally inseparable.”

In other words, neither the cabinet nor Togo himself believed that any change of policy was necessary on the afternoon of August 7, one day after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, although the majority of the cabinet members had already known that the bomb was most likely an atomic bomb, and furthermore that unless Japan surrendered, many atomic bombs might be dropped on other cities in Japan. In fact, far from entertaining the possibility of accepting the Potsdam terms, the cabinet was blatantly more combative against the United States, deciding to lodge a formal protest against the use of the atomic bomb. On August 8, one day before the Soviet invasion, the General Staff’s Bureau of Military Affairs produced a study outlining what Japan should do if the Soviet Union issued an ultimatum demanding Japan’s total withdrawal from the Asian continent. According to this plan, the following alternatives were suggested: (1) reject the Soviet demand and carry out the war against the Soviet Union in addition to the United States and Britain; (2) conclude peace with the United States and Britain immediately and concentrate on the war against the Soviet Union; (3) accept the Soviet demand and seek Moscow’s neutrality, while carrying on the war against the United States and Britain; and (4) accept the Soviet demand and involve the Soviet Union in the Greater East Asian War. Of these alternatives, the army preferred to accept the Soviet demand and either keep the Soviet Union neutral or, if possible, involve the Soviet Union in the war against the United States and Britain.[40] Tsuyoshi Hasegawa is professor of modern Russian and Soviet history, University of California, Santa Barbara and the author of Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.

Arisue kikanho, no. 333, Nov. 16, 1945, Rikugunsho, “Beikoku shireibu no ‘Teikokusakusen oyobi shido kankei shitsumon’ ni taisuru kaito, Bunko Yu, 395, Beoei Kenkyujo, Senshishitsu. Everyone ages, and queer men are uniquely punished for doing so, are told that their inherent human value fades as they do what they cannot stop. If The Beatles were an avant-garde gay band with complicated concepts and their own religion, something between Coil and Psychic TV, then the Japanese artist Sadao Hasegawa (1945-1999) would be their all-time favorite designer. He could become an underground icon of the hippie sixties and seventies with the people's enthusiasm about cults, drugs, and free love, but for some reason, Hasegawa didn't want to be famous abroad. Yet our suggestion allows us to fully describe the art of this mystic who preferred committing suicide rather than getting old. Furthermore, although Suzuki may have believed that the atomic bombs had nullified the basic assumption on which the Ketsu Go strategy was based, his view was not necessarily shared by the Army officers. Anami consistently argued throughout the critical days even after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs that the army was confident it could inflict tremendous damage on the invading American troops, indicating that Anami and the army officers continued to believe that despite the atomic bombs, the Americans still planned to launch a homeland invasion. And this assessment was fundamentally correct, since American military planners never substituted atomic bombing alone for the plan to invade Japan.